Making sense of Wall Street’s trading revenue — Peter Eavis tries to unravel just what, exactly, bank trading desks do, and how they make their money. He finds that JPMorgan and Citgroup’s disclosures are too vague to understand. (New York Times)

The JPMorgan “whale” report and the ghosts of the financial crisis — “Virtually every “cause” of the significant trading losses delineated by the internal JPM task force would have been found in earlier internal and independent reports about the sources of problems at many financial institutions during the credit crisis.” (Harvard Business Review)

New home sales and distressing gap — “Even with the sharp increase in sales, 2012 was the third lowest year for new home sales since the Census Bureau started tracking sales in 1963. The two lowest years were 2010 and 2011.” (Calculated Risk)

Raw Data: The Union Premium — An illustrated look at the difference in wages between unionized and nonunionized workers. (Mother Jones)

Absence of formal technical analysis — “My mentor, Sir John Templeton, shared that outside of the Bible, the most important book he had ever read was the “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” by Charles Mackay.” (Kimble Charting Solutions)

About Stocks To Watch

Earnings reports, corporate strategies and analyst insights are all part of what moves stocks, and they’re all covered by the Stocks to Watch blog. We also look at macro issues, investor sentiments and hidden trends that are affecting the market. Stocks to Watch gives you the full picture of the U.S. stock markets, all day long.

The blog is written by Ben Levisohn, a former stock trader who has covered financial markets for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and BusinessWeek.